Modern Problems, Modern Solutions

[@wanderyak5749]

Now WotC knows how to get Spike to continue playing Standard...

[@magusofthebargain]

Top comment!! As much as we don't like it, the correct course of action might be to ignore Modern, stop printing "straight to Modern" sets, and focus ALL the game design and support on the Standard format. I have stopped playing Standard. Thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of players have stopped playing Standard. Foundations is a good start. Now they just need to do what they do best: Make cards. And make Standard the central format. The other formats (especially EDH) don't need any help in order to be popular. This is the point of view of an investor / owner of WotC, not as a player. As a player, I'm looking forward to Pauper Masters!!!

[@SHAOLINCOWBOY-ip9hw]

2:00 Wizards of the Coast does not understand the typical Modern player. I just play at my LGS for fun and don't have any aspirations to be a pro player. They should focus on the fun and playability of the format over focusing on pro play. Members of WotC have even admitted that they are aware that a lot of people play Modern casually. A lot of people like to say "well just play Commander if you like having fun". No, I hate Commander. Commander is boring, turns take too long, there is always that one person who brings a CEDH deck, there are cheaters, Commander players don't know how to play the game by the rules, etc etc. Commander is not the answer and scheduled bans are a disservice to many fans who enjoy Modern.

[@MrLogistician]

You make a great comment. You're highlighting 2 things wotc should probably address: Casual vs competitive differences (which applies to any format) Wotc focuses on balance for pro players at the expense of casual gamers. I don't understand why a casual setting must be equated with a tournament that has hundreds or thousands of dollars for the victor. Yeah I agree with your points about edh too. I haven't found any intentional cheaters at my lgs but there's a huge difference in understanding of rules between a someone who mostly plays modern and someone who mostly plays edh...and I'm really surprised how bad edh players are with rules, considering how the interactions can get so wild.

[@PleasantKenobi]

Really like the idea of moving to a more dynamic ban schedule.

[@nb_Lynda]

Trying to get back into MTG as a modern player from 2013 is kinda like that scene from Community where Donald Glover comes back into the apartment with pizza and everyone is either screaming, bleeding, or on fire while the place burns down around them. Gonna watch the Tarmogoyf video next and think about how much I miss Jund 😥

[@Rabid_Wombat]

Play Commander, buy the Disa Precon from MH3 and look up "Boomer Jund Upgrades" ❤

[@draconocor]

I really would like to see more frequent unbannings. They seem like a good way to add some fun back into brewing without power creep.

[@aidasdomasevicius8098]

Definitely. Are Mox Opal, Birthing Pod, Splinter Twin still broken in 2025? I am honestly not sure. But we'll never know if they stay banned forever.

[@olbatrossi]

@@aidasdomasevicius8098 Mox Opal most definitely is.

[@draconocor]

@@aidasdomasevicius8098 I like that you tried to slip Mox Opal in there, like we wouldn't notice.

[@georgetaylor9873]

Opal is crazy

[@bobsuarez4364]

Artifact lands shoud have been unbanned once opal was banned. Much more now that there are wrath of the skies and meltdown to wipe them with the rest of the board plus they lose hard to stony silence too.

[@oliviersoable]

Hasbro want his shareholders to be happy, not you.😂

[@jakemurphy9663]

"people forget that a significant part of modern's history was a broken card getting banned, or getting something else banned, every set." this was simply not an issue before War of the Spark/MH1. Hogaak was the first time a New Card™ broke the format since Eldrazi Winter (a bunch of new cards enabled by an older one). Prior to FIRE design, modern was a great balance of stability and new shake-ups. A few mistakes were made of course, but it wasn't a cycle of "my deck got powered out of the format and also we need to ban 3 new cards" every 18 months.

[@ArtisticTomahawk]

@@jakemurphy9663 These newer players were born into this mindset and it doesn't bother them. *New set yay Old cards stupid Bad cards bad for wallet Why old people mad lol* They will never know that you didn't need to buy 50 cards from a Horizons set to play competitively.

[@ryanhebertson7457]

Modern was solved and boring before MH1. Sure they print dumb broken cards every couple years that need to be banded but is a dead format really what you want? Before you say yes, when was the last time you played pioneer at your lgs?

[@Jamtron88]

Based and too rational for wizards pilled

[@JoshuaFoy]

Its time for splinter twin to get a presidential pardon or get out on parole for good behavior. He did his time.

[@ArenaRat-xd8fu]

Lol no

[@JerHawkins]

I just came to say how much I loved this video, Spike. Thanks so much for all you do for our game.

[@stevepowell2499]

Really enjoyed this video. Good to hear some well thought out reasoning about what could fix the format and get people excited to play modern again.

[@samuelpaulson6416]

I 100% agree that Jegantha needs to go. It’s not broken per se, but some decks randomly getting an 8th card for absolutely no reason is stupid. Also, I’m just tired of how ubiquitous it is. Half of all games start with one or both players revealing a Pokémon

[@necrocreature9117]

It's just proof they should just errata companion to not exist on cards, then they can unban Lurrus, too.

[@juliosierra2241]

Jegantha banned sure, ocelote is so bas a cmc 1 who can make guide win the game

[@valeckseimu3132]

Cant ban ring, they spent too much for the INC. UNBAN Is no sense, modo got to many card. Ok for guide e jeg to go

[@juliosierra2241]

@@valeckseimu3132 they can make a rule that only allow you to have one ring per deck

[@TherealLaserdog]

They need to print more companions, not ban more of them

[@TheTurophile]

16:30 nobody is saying "wotc doesn't want to ban TOR or any MH3 card because of corporate pressure" as an excuse for wotc. nobody thinks that's a good thing. but the fact is that money talks and hasbro would be stupid to let wotc ruin its relationship with the IP rights holders. it is a perverse and bad incentive that hurts the game, but it _is_ an incentive. reminds me of when the walking dead UB was announced and everyone was shitting on people who predicted that UB was going to take over the game. 3 years later and guess what? money talks.

[@maxread6908]

I hope some WOTC exec's grandson is watching this video rn

[@dominiclagorio3641]

Thanks for the content spike! You always lend some pretty dang good insight imo, and it’s usually pretty spot on!

[@sassonbatatt]

hands down the best video I’ve seen talking about modern. thanks for the awesome content spike!

[@matusabaffy9453]

I think many players don't understand that WotC's goal is not to make the format(s) most enjoyable for players - their goal is to make the most money for their shareholders, ideally in the long term. Sure, if too many people stop playing a format and stop buying MtG products, that will cost them money. But as long as the products sell, there's no problem for them. This is also one of the reasons why, in general, they are not much motivated to unban cards - unless they plan to reprint them in some masters set, as they did with Jace, TMS.

[@SaltySparrow]

they want it fun enough for you to buy and play, then they don't care if it sours. Rinse, repeat.

[@andrewan6662]

right answer

[@Martin-qb2mw]

How are they going to make money if everyone agrees their cards are shiet and the formats are shiet? You make money by creating an enjoyable game, not by alienating all your customers.

[@MattM-wo4wu]

I think the problem isn't the ban schedule but the soft rotation the Horizon sets represent. Unless you have a lot of free time and disposable income its hard to keep up with. The irony for me is that, back in my college days, I had both those things, but the modern metagame was stable enough that I didnt need to worry about it. Now I work a 9-5 and have a family, so I can only go to FNM once every few months, so its hard to justify dumping several hundreds of dollars to keep my deck relevant after each direct-to-modern set.

[@Ocara115]

I was very heavily invested in modern from 2019 up through the Lord of The Rings set. I always had a blast, even when there was silly cards or decks dominating the meta. The issue for me came when The One Ring became a must have 4 of in almost every deck. It was just so unfun and I really didnt want to become part of the problem. I sold out of almost everything (except Burn, which is quite bad when you look at Boros Energy), and I have only looked at the format a few times after each set. Nadu was the straw that made me just not want to play modern again. If Wizards can go through with the changes you've suggested, I could see myself getting back into modern, at least on mtgo. Thank you for the video Spike.

[@bak2grave4u]

imagine a ring, raptor, jengantha ban and twin and pod unban. That would be a Christmas miracle

[@jessoftherocks]

Umm better unban jitte and hypergenesis than too

[@tgworks5791]

P fire unban

[@GunnyBobbunny]

@@jessoftherocks they will never unban hypergenesis while living end is viable and reasonable deck

[@Dracomandriuthus]

Pod never gets unbanned. I could see jitte unban

[@juliosierra2241]

Imagine being an ocelote, one of the most broken cards but noobe say a sht, cause they wanna still playing energy

[@FGCmtg]

I love this. I would go play modern fnm again for the first time in 9 years if twin and jitte were allowed, I love those cards.

[@loganchristiansen564]

Scheduled announcements after a MH set was the worst time to start them

[@sethdoddridge7806]

I think Wizards needs to understand that energy as a mechanic is easily broken if they're not careful. Getting free value that your opponent can't interact with is too strong (i.e the initiative in Legacy).

[@drkatz1192]

Thank you Spike! Please be a voice of reason for Modern. I miss how fun it used to be pre-MH, and even post-MH2. LOTR & MH3 were the worst two sets of all time for Modern. Period.

[@nathannjh]

Lotr also ruined legacy. I was a long time proxie player saving up for the real deal. Then, bowmasters dropped. Played 20-30 games; Haven't played magic since. I have checked the meta game, and it looks like the card has fallen out of favor. Perhaps it's time to try magic again. Grief getting banned has probably helped stomp out Dimir's dominance.

[@Vermilio893]

​@@nathannjh grief ban did very little, psychic frog is the superior 2 mana card is the thing. if they play a frog and you play a bowmaster you lose the exchange and game. But I fear once frog gets banned we are back to bowmaster vs bowmaster gaming

[@jaydenholzhueter6344]

We can all agree one ring should’ve been banned a while back right?

[@jaydenholzhueter6344]

Orcish bowmaster would receive an automatic nerf after one ring ban lol. Black is slower compared to the other color pairs by itself after all

[@darkritualpass]

Speaking as a Legacy player we also don't like the scheduled ban announcements and waiting too long to ban grief has spiraled to a very weird format.

[@LeatherMiasma]

I'll write what im typing pretty much everywhere. Stop printing modern Horizons sets.

[@TDragonus]

Bans should be on an ad hoc basis, when situations like this go on for far too long. I don't see why this can't be the case

[@BasicProcrastination]

such a big spike KZbin content PowerPoint rant fan

[@TheNoblestMan]

So I trained as a game designer in undergrad, and while I disagree with some of your points I think you show excellent game design sense and articulate excellent arguments for even the points I disagree with. If I was TAing you get a firm A+. I know this response is a lot, but you put a lot of thought into your arguments so I wanted to respect you by doing likewise. If you have time, let me know what you think, or at least that you read it! XD So the obvious first thing is Jegantha. The thing I disagree with most isn't the banning, it's what you said at 9:05, that winning or losing with Jegantha isn't fun. You are obviously entitled to your preferences, but the biggest flaw with Magic's foundational systems is that they way that it implements variance via screw/flood is *extremely* unfun. The Companion mechanic does an exceptional job of smoothing out both flood AND screw; flood for obvious reasons but screw because it incentivizes people to play more lands, making screw less likely. There's a reason MaRo has said that if he could redo any one mechanic it would be Companion. It does an excellent job at patching a core problem with the game, but they missed so unbelievably badly on power level they'll never get a second shot. And while WotC would NEVER do this because the boomers would be Big Mad at somebody saying their 30 year old card game isn't perfect, Magic is almost certainly a better game if you strip all colors/requirements/abilities from Jeggy and just treat it as a core rules update that everyone gets to use in the form of a vanilla 5/5. (Similar to how Pokemon Pocket uses Poke Ball and Professor's Research, if you've played that.) I think your argument that Jeggy is too strong with Arena of Glory is accurate. However, I think you don't interrogate enough Arena of Glory's role in that, and actually make a stronger argument for Arena of Glory to be banned than Jeggy. As of right now, Arena of Glory has a higher metagame share on Goldfish than Jeggy (41% to 37%). It is also incredibly free for any red deck running fetches, it effectively can give 2 things haste for 0 mana that turn on a *land*, and lets you deal 12 damage for 4 mana with Phlage, the most commonly played creature in the format. I completely agree with unbanning Pod and Jitte, but am marginally more skeptical of Twin. 3feri has been added to the format since Twin's ban too, and while he's not the star he used to be he completely shuts down any interaction with Twin and fits very nicely into combo control. Twin's probably fine, but not as obvious a yes as the others I think. Lastly, the interesting thing about Arena having these cards in Historic and Timeless is that they give sort of alternate universe glimpses into what the strongest of these cards are, and in these alternate universes Ajani is the strongest of these cards by a LOT, followed up by Phlage into Guide. Ajani plus Bombardment is so good, but so is it plus Cthonian Nightmare, or it plus Birthing Ritual, or it plus Phyrexian Tower. A baseline 2 for 1 that trivially turns into 2 mana Gideon Ally of Zendikar that also bolts things is just so much. That value matters less when card advantage is a thing any deck can pay 4 mana for infinite of, but outside that universe it is... very strong. Phlage is good, but perfectly reasonable most of the time except when hasted out by an Arena of Glory, as discussed. Overall, I generally agree with your assessment that any two of those can be banned, but think if Arena of Glory goes Phlage really doesn't need to.

[@philcoats6812]

Have your cake and eat it too! Have scheduled B&R announcements... And still do emergency Bans!

[@simonds3182]

This functionally is the same thing as getting rid of scheduled bans

[@yellowpie]

They can’t have their cake and eat it too. The point of scheduled B&R announcements is to instill confidence that you can invest in a deck without any of the cards being banned out of the blue. Any form of unscheduled ban completely breaks that confidence.

[@philcoats6812]

This way, they can still have discussions surrounding Bans and Restrictions/ Format Health and receive feedback from the player base regarding the status of the game as well as communicate how they feel about things in a structured way, but still have the ability to react appropriately when something is truly unforseen but clearly broken like Nadu without having to wait months for another change. While it may functionally be the same as getting rid of the scheduled B&R, it will be seen as progress, while saving face for keeping it around while simultaneously pretending to care about community feedback driving community engagement, while not actually doing anything tangible. The scheduled B&R functioning as a confidence booster for those who want to buy into degenerate decks for a few months before ban isn't functionally working as intended, because now it's an ever repeating waiting game for the next announcement of when to buy in, the best time to buy in is always after the next announcement. The confidence booster should be the clearly communicated ideas and intentions of the B&R teams of every format at the scheduled B&R announcements. But y'know, Wizards doesn't actually care, and will have an AI generated announcement reinforcing whatever they think will sell more packs after the December announcement because there actually isn't even a B&R team let alone one for every format.

[@ThisIsFineIAmOk]

​@@philcoats6812makes absolutely zero sense to schedule a date for bans and them ignoring the date to ban something. its literally the same thing as NOT schedule shit at all

[@philcoats6812]

@@ThisIsFineIAmOk that's bad logic. Plenty of B&R announcements have been, NO CHANGES TO X FORMAT, LOOKING AT XYZ CARDS

[@IamActuallyLvL1]

Glad someone else is on 'Unbans for PR/Excitement'

[@paulsmart2416]

Along with the obvious One Ring ban, banning some of Energy’s draft chaff like Galvanic Discharge and Static Prison would be a nice way of powering down the parasitic power level of Energy without devaluing the still shiny and new MH3 rares too much.

[@carnagejon]

Guide of souls and raptor are just to good...

[@justinw4514]

Discharge and Prison are perfectly fine cards without Guide of Souls. Guide of Souls producing an unbelievable amount of energy for free is what breaks these other energy cards.

[@josephclites6971]

WOTC, please listen to Spike!! Plays as much Modern as anyone and absolutely loves it. He's giving you the solution. Take it. Hell, take credit for it and say it was your idea!! Bottom line, it would make the format better, more diverse, and ultimately more enjoyable.

[@MeldrickCz]

My city had very good and attendive modern community playing fairly competetivly. After this summer it is completely gone with most people went to premodern, pauper or classical EDH. Eveny pioneer is now more popular. So good job WOTCe. Also I remember when format was okay with scheduled banns were ok and we look forward for some nice print and the format was forgiving for deck building aka before modern horizon more likely Return to Ravnica, Khans, Magic Origins ect.

[@screwthisnaming]

Love the paint background of the elephant in the room. Way to go the extra mile here :)

[@thebrewsky26]

As a modern TO and player it felt bad to shut down our monday tournaments. The drive to play dried up after months of grief, nadu, and ring making the play experience not worth the trip to the local gamestore. Some got into standard, some premodern, some quit and went back to video games. I agree whole heartedly with this video. Modern is my favorite format.., I don't know if it will come back. Maybe every monday will just be 2011 vod appreciation and I'll be playing edh once a month. Kinda bummed out of magic rn

[@ThomasFromNork]

i think if the two cards you ban from boros are phlage and static prison, it gets to remain as a strong aggro deck, without removing its identity, and it doesn't get to have the best late game plan in the format too.

[@stevenashley27]

Yeah, that’s the problem and not Guide of Souls turning any creature you want into an angel and gaining life at no cost, or Amped Raptor being able to provide a 2 for 1 or a 3 for 1, or even a Ring on turn 2 for no cost really, none of those are problems

[@ThomasFromNork]

@stevenashley27 i mean, I think the ring is getting banned either way. I think boros is so dominant in the meta bc it gets to be the best aggro/midrange/control deck. Yeah, it sucks that they get really efficient creatures, but if you remove their comeback mechanics like ring and phlage, they lose to a well-timed pyroclasm. Getting rid of prison also means that they don't get a free answer to any hate cards you board in against them

[@ryanjohannson2142]

plot twist, wizards makes every format unplayable so that the only thing we have is standard and they get their dream of making standard popular again

[@ReclaimedJawns]

no ring discourse please, peace and love

[@ehall2877]

I think they should re-ban wild nacatl and unban skullclamp, no other changes. This would not make the format better, but it would be very funny to see people's reactions.

[@johnmichaud6453]

😂

[@joaquinmontes6599]

Great video. Thank you for putting this together. I agree ring and energy should get banned in some way.

[@tzvirubin9708]

i really, really, hope someone at wotc is taking notes.

[@vulcanh254]

I would be very surprised if they banned Jegantha but I wouldn't mind it. I agree with everything you said, the deck building restrictions are laughably low. It's not that it's too powerful, it's just unfair that some decks get a free buff like that. And it's not a small buff either. Some decks just get to start the game with an emblem manasink that let's them conjure a 5/5 to their hand. Again it would be fine if you had to work for it and make sacrifices during deck building. But Jegantha's requirements are just "don't play cards that are hard to cast" which you naturally try to avoid anyway.

[@Mulch4321]

Great stuff, idk if Spike actually reads these and not just editor, but I hope WotC takes some of these steps going forward for modern, especially with Pioneer languishing in irrelevance for the foreseeable future, competitively speaking. Also a rant Re: Companions, I think the main argument of 'Just ban them all' (which I am for, personally), stems from a more vibe-check issue than a complaint that Obosh, the Preypiercer is busted or whatever - it's like only banning Seat of the Synod because the main problem in affinity was blue, just nuke the cycle. Even innocuous ones like Lutri or Kaheera to me feel like they follow the same slippery slope of having no real deckbuilding cost if enough cards get printed, and while getting to that point will be harder than with Lurrus, Yorion or Jegantha I think they're still threatening enough to just get em all out and be done with it so designers don't have to worry how Leyline Binding 2 will impact Keruga piles in 2027. They were already a huge mistake when they could simply be cast from outside the game, and erratas are so disastrous from an aesthetic standpoint where it could conceivably happen that a player has a card in their hand that says a thing, and the rules dictate 'ehm actually 🤓the oracle text says this'. Not that WotC really cares about the identity of MTG now with Universes Beyond (wow crazy he hates Universes beyond bet you didn't see that coming) but anyways yes I hope the game we all love gets better soon I will keep watching cheers

[@DefinitelyNotReal627]

I think Kaheera especially we're dangerously close. Like one powerful cat or elemental away.

[@matthewlund7807]

We are in almost perfect agreement! However, I’d like to add Punish Fire to the list of possible unbans as it might punish Energy decks. If the deck needs be nerfed beyond losing ToR and Jegantha, I think it should be Guide of Souls first, Raptor second.

[@irvingsoh7256]

i think what was maybe sort of also missed out is the fact that interaction is really what makes the format enjoyability go up. i had the most fun when i was actively able to interact w my opponents instead of just getting run over by powerful 1/2 cmc cards that cascade into other powerful 1/2 cmc cards.

[@graylord69]

100% on board with the Jegantha ban. I find it similar to Gitaxian Probe in some ways: it's not a super powerful card, but the cost of playing it and integrating into your strategy is STUPIDLY low, so people just integrate it into any and everything they can. I want Modern to be fun, diverse and reward good deckbuilding, and Jegantha helps make it anything BUT those three things. As for the unbans... I see the point that unbanning stuff whilst keeping scheduled B&Rs is risky, but the current banlist has many, many cards that absolutely won't break the format if they get unbanned. I mean, Bridge From Below is still banned, ffs... Bring the weaker cards back and maybe try something less safe (like Twin) a few months from now.

[@zenmaster8826]

True.. jegantha might not be as overpowered as the other companions.. in fact, it’s once considered as the most powerful fair card… but it 100% guarantees a turn3 play and to have something in your hand to either pitch or play…. Magic is about variance

[@shyer6646]

I bought in to modern based on the criteria it is sold as, an eternal format made up of modern cards, those created since WoTC got a handle on what they're doing, as opposed to older eternal formats which include a lot of cards many players consider "mistakes". Modern is instead like you described, a revolving format featuring the latest FOTM cards. Accepting that was a punch in the gut after the thousands I spent on "staples". Still I continued to buy new cards, stupidly convinced 'this time the deck will finally be secure', until The One Ring came out. Cards like that make me think, okay, I have to buy this expensive card if I want to continue playing, but I know eventually it will have to be banned. It's a lose lose. They get a lot of money out of players using "chase" cards, but they won't get any more from those players once the trust is finally broken. Oh, and having the entire format be centered around a "LOTR" card just leaves an awful taste in my mouth. With marvel on the horizon, soon I won't even be able to look.

[@OsvaldoChannel1]

I dont know why WotC is so scared of unbans. They did it twice with Modern and Legacy and the cards didn't do anything. They built an entire format on the idea "let's unban everything" (Timeless) and none of the cards they unbanned can even compete with cards they added later on (Energy is almost the same deck there and it's Tier 1), people CLEARY wants unbans in Modern and Historic and are always happy when it happens. And yet they dont? Because they are scared? Just ban the card again if it creates a problem.

[@bondeulv]

The unbanned Golgari Grave-Troll in Modern. Didn't go well.

[@justinw4514]

​​@@bondeulv more recently, they unbanned JTMS and Stoneforge and those unbans were great

[@OsvaldoChannel1]

@bondeulv ok, then they banned It again and everything went on as normal. They also unbanned Preordain and UR Murktide didn't take over the format. There are cards that are way less dangerous than Troll on the Banlist that a lot of people want unbanned.

[@infernalgoblin4508]

Birthday pod wouldn’t go into yawg, It would just go back to being pod, most likely kiki pod for how easily it combos.

[@ewanhiddleston6642]

I pretty much agree with everything you said, only thing I would say is that you missed Goblin Bombardment as a ban option in Boros. Sad maybe for Rakdos Sac, but while fun the deck isn't really a player in the format and Bombardment has really sped up Boros' clock and made Ajani more insane than it was. If Wizards does choose the 'bad' path and keep the B&Rs as they are, I'd say Raptor and Bombardment are the pick, which also has the effect of reducing the red permanent count in the deck and makes Ajani much worse, but really those two cards are the ones that speed the deck up and allow it to do the most broken things in the most resilient ways adnd those are the issues with the deck, that it can outpace other decks and how resilient it is.

[@Izmirization]

Really insightful video, thx spike

[@vandir4719]

I still don’t understand the violent outburst ban with mh3 comming up they had with consign, bauble and flute three premium hate pieces enter the format and a lot of powerful decks emerge from mh3.

[@NSCTripleAgent]

I like TOR. It's universal, and slow for this format. There are SO many ways to deal with it. Not to mention curbing Energy will bring its play percentage down anyway. Reprint it once or twice so people can stop crying about the price, and if you don't want to buy Rings, play one of the DOZENS of cards that stops or counteracts it. The amount of people crying about a 4 mana artifact that can and will kill you itself in THIS ridiculous format is insane to me.

[@aidankeyes5526]

I would love to see either of these routes. I agree about the left being better, too. My only problem is I think we need to dump Ajani either way. I don't think it's the best card but I think he's the most annoying to play around and definitely cuts the decks power to catch up on board without the 2 mana creature, planeswalker, and boardwipe all in one.

[@newscoulomb3705]

Three months later, and a streamer is already wearing a different shirt? I call shenanigans!

[@dillongeissert6056]

Spike. What do you think about just unbanning everything in modern and seeing what happens? Haha start fresh. They will have to ban some things but the power level i think would be fun, we have lots of 0 interaction and would shake it all up. I know some things would have to be banned within a month (storm and dredge stuff probably) but whats your thoughts about that?

[@BruderSeth]

If they ban Jegantha that will surely make him one disgruntled elk..

[@nicholasjohnston9737]

Been watching/listening your modern videos on KZbin forever. Your daily uploads have gotten me through @ couple bad jobs and a horrible relationship and the years of depression that came with it. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but it's crazy how much your content has helped me, with non magic related things. My days already feel off since I don't follow anything standard, and haven't watched your new standard adventure. I really hope wotc does something good with this b&r. Idk if I can afford to get into standard lol. As always, great video, thanks friend!

[@cookiesandmilk6421]

The long and short of it is that this format has been on a slow death march for like 5 years and I just can't understand why people play it anymore. It's practically MH + LoTR constructed block

[@TheWyldDragon]

I think they should errata companion mechanic again. Just make you Mulligan an extra time if you have a companion. So you lose that "free card advantage". The only reason companion was as broken as it has been, is because it's an 8th card in hand. Just make it your 7th!

[@stalkerstomper3304]

I agree with the ban suggestions, and disagree with the un-ban suggestions of Twin, Jitte, and Pod. I agree with your reasoning, yet why take a chance by swapping out cards that are definitely stagnating Modern, while un-banning cards that were also a problem in the past, and most definitely are safer keeping out of the format.

[@franksantana6859]

It's really sad to see the state that modern is in. I left about a month after MH3 and started playing commander, haven't looked back.

[@tricky5222]

I don't even care if it's suboptimal, pod or twin get unbanned and I'm sprinting for them

[@senseicleriker1175]

The thing with energy is that this mechanic will most likely not be supported until the next modern horizons set, meaning this deck will propably not get any significant upgrades until then. And compared to unfun decks like Nadu or BR Scam I actually enjoy playing against it. Apart from the ring, that can go ;)

[@IVIaskerade]

Given how long it's been an obvious problem and yet still dodged bans, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the IP agreement for the LotR set included stipulations about not banning iconic cards so they remain desirable.

[@Daniel-jz4cb]

1. Remove scheduled B and R. 2. Unban EVERYTHING.

[@Tom-qg7jx]

What do you think about Ponder unban? nerfs Ring and Boros

[@deankolpin4736]

If one ring doesn't get banned I'm not playing modern

[@davidcox4687]

I really wish youtube would stop banning spike's new uploads from my subscription feed...

[@ghostaccountlmao]

It really speaks to powercreep when the best decks all have cards with only enough pips to allow Jegantha in the decklist. Cards like Cruel Ultimatum, Lilianna of the Veil, Jace the Mind sculptor used to have identity to them via their costs. I can't think of any overbearing cards in MH3 that don't allow for Jegantha. And then of course we have The One Ring. lol. Necrodominance is somehow not annihilating modern, and it probably has to do with the mana cost. More cards should probably follow this design.

[@justinw4514]

The Necro deck is just not that good. The card quality aside from Necro itself is super low. March of Wretched Sorrow and Soul Spike are awful cards. Sorry Sheoldred fans, Sheoldred is not a good modern card. Your nut draw as the Necro deck is Thoughtseize into Bowmaster into turn 3 Necro cast 2 Soul spikes and a March and end the turn at like 13 life. That's not beating anything in modern. The premier combo decks like Belcher and Goryos can easily kill on turn 4 through a single thoughtseize and if energy doesn't rebuild their entire board in one turn then they'll just play patterns you until they do. How does Necro even beat Eldrazi Tron if they hold Kcommand for Sheoldred until they can cast a single Sire

[@greener_gaming2932]

I selfishly want them to mess it up so I can continue to have standard spike >_>

[@betabrett0223]

there is way too much proof out there that splinter twin is not powerful enough to be dominate but can still win

[@AmaniMurashige]

Do you think Since grief is banned now unbanning fury could nerf Boros energy. Also it could bring back a lot of other pretty fuckin sick decks.

[@friendo6257]

Than you for filming. Goodbye.

[@LANMEE2]

I agree with Spike's approach but knowing WotC they will half ass the decision, and only create the same situation in the future. I think that the best thing we could do for modern is to not play it. Only then would WotC probably feel incentivized to fix it.

[@Goryus]

6:15 Up the Ring Stocks?

[@dreamlight7634]

Scheduled ban announcements just need to happen more often. Just go back to when these happened every set. You need some stability and it takes a little for a format to tune. Enough that I think having a ban announcement every other month is fine

[@zWooTWooTz]

That wasn't frequent enough in the first place and they were horribly timed

[@ilikefruit666]

The BandR announcements are based on financial investments not players.

[@mr.nobody6726]

Hm. I can see the argument about the universality of jegantha being a problem and especially arena of glory giving it a big boost. I also usually just start my sideboard by adding jegantha. However I would be very sad if jegantha got banned because I would not be able to present my altered jegantha (or rudolph the reindeer) to my opponents

[@Vojdek]

That was rather interesting, thank you! I am on board with a Jegantha and Ring ban. There are no reasonable reasons not to. I don't feel Energy will be that good without the Ring, I'd just wait a bit before banning anything from the deck, removing the massive card advantage the deck has in Ring might be enough to slow it down considerably. I have some considerations, though. Fury was banned because it kills easily X/1s, Bowmasters and W&6 are also frowned upon because of this. Yet Jitte that virtually does the same thing is fine? For Twin and Pod I remain firmly on the "If they're not that good anymore, why unaban them at all?" And if they are good, why risk doing a GGT encore?

[@falkranduhm10]

Magic gets new cards by the hundreds every year, Horizon sets or not. The idea of the ban list not getting bigger is just weird. I am surprised it is as short as it is.

[@martonlerant5672]

TBH. the one ring is best, when its played in decks, where you can barf onto the field whatever you drawn with it. WRx midrange (energy) is one such "average cmc=1" deck. In general the one ring encourages two archatypes, ones with extreme low cmc permanents, and decks that have a lot of pitch cards.

[@martonlerant5672]

Also RWx is mostly x/1 tribal, which could be solved with static effects that reduce toughness by one. Ajani, the cats ...etc. look mighty dumb against sulfur elemental. Issue is that the deck can still flip ring from raptor. If it x/-1 global tougness reduction effects would mean the deck would be reduced to having two threats, the glorified soul sister, and the titan, then the meta could handle it.

[@martonlerant5672]

I wouldn't unban jitte. Unbanning jitte feels like "unban it to deal with RWx midrange". And that feels a LOT like what happend with previous MH era bans, where WotC printed seomthing utterly broken, then banned an "enabler" to weaken a broken deck, killing bajillion low tier decks in the process. Jitte would murder a lot more decks than energy

[@GuetoAnonimo]

Modern needs unbans, right now it is so stale Jitte, glimpse, pod, twin, artifact lands (since now we have meltdown and WotS), hypergenesis, blazing shoal, punishing fire, maybe fury(to put energy in check?) maybe uro (midrange and control tool)

[@tancredidesimone7301]

Thabk you for coming around on your opinion on GOS, I remember you talking about the non necessity to ban the card, and you just kept losing solely to it. Maybe you're right on amped raptor being better, but I'm glad you admitted that GOS should maybe go too.

[@Black0ut_28]

You mentioned it twice causing some problematic interactions, and I doubt it will be the last time. Does Arena of Glory need some ban consideration?

[@nuparuchi]

great visuals, and I think your arguments are presented well. I think it's much more likely that wizards does something closer to the second path (ban two cards from energy and the ring). I can't really see them banning jegantha but I think they probably should

[@pandapersonpersona4473]

I still dread splinter twin reentering the format but that is likely just my bias. I agree I think the one ring has to go. Jegantha was one I didn't think of but makes perfect sense. I think the energy cards are too new for them to ban but that might just be my bias. I also heavily doubt they will move off scheduled B&R

[@gliscor9892]

Tbh I would ban the ring and amped raptor (never thought of jegantha, but it’s a really good argument). Because the actual problem with boros energy is that it has the tools to go to distance thanks to value cards like raptor and ring. Basically you can just vomit your hand to the board, tank a wrath and then just rebuild easily from scratch. Without raptor and ring the deck loses a lot of its grind game possibilities and as a boros energy player, hands that start with ocelot and ajani are not auto wins especially post sideboard when wraths come in. Banning 2 of the core cards of the deck would result in the strategy completely dying. So my picks would be Ban: The one ring Jegantha Amped raptor Unban: Pod Jitte Splinter twin Punishing fire (good vs boros as it gains a lot of life)

[@mikekenny1698]

If Ring doesn't get banned I'm selling my collection, I'm done, even if eventually they ban it it's already too late, this will honestly be the final straw for me and probably for a lot of players

[@mikekenny1698]

also Grief should be unbanned, absolutely moronic decision that it got banned because it 'wasn't fun' but One Ring has been wreaking havoc for months now, it's not a strong card and only fringe decks really play it anyway

[@thepolishprince851]

Sometimes listening to Spikes takes baffles me. Of course NOW the one ring is problematic but I remember talking about numerous cards but the one ring in particular about why it needed to be banned about 5-6 months ago and Spike being of the mind that “it’s just not that problematic for modern” was the laughable. I understand content creators and the people that love to play their favorite formats wanting to play certain decks and seeing a card ban from that deck is upsetting. In Spikes case, man was he wrong on that one and been wrong on some real stinkers in the past too.

[@AngeliaBottiani]

Nah, MH2 most hyped. MH3 came off the heels of LotR, which, at least personally, was the beginning of the end of Modern.

[@topkapi9351]

If anything should be banned from energy, it should *not* be phlage or ajani. It should be Guide, Raptor, Galvanic Discharge, or Wrath of the Skies, and Tune the Narrative should go from the U versions as well. Energy is a mistake and colorless mana are mistakes of the same kind - they introduce new resources to the game that offer pay-offs that often entirely warp the individual games they show up in. And wouldn't you know it, they were released within a year of each other... I firmly oppose banning "payoff/win condition" cards. In my view, banning "enablers" is almost always the way to go. If enablers go, win conditions get harder to play - if win conditions go *but* enablers stay around, something else will inevitably fill in the gap.

[@marcantoniosavelli1710]

Agree on everything. If you were in charge of Modern (and other things), the game would be better, given that you are more competent than people at Wizards. Unfortunately, I doubt they will follow your suggestions, mostly for economic (greed) reasons.

[@goldlink567]

As a primarily YGO player, I think WotC needs to ban more cards and a lot more often (also try actually Limiting cards). Modern is becoming a lot like YGO, but not in the good ways, a new set comes out and the entire meta becomes about that set. The difference is that YGO only has 1 format (no rotating format anywhere that's supposed to push sales), they make fairly frequent bans and unbans (compared to MTG anyways), and every year most of the meta relevant cards get really solid reprints, sometimes the reprints aren't great but at least they exist. The powercreep from the Modern Horizon sets, especially MH3 (also kinda LotR), are like multiple years worth of powercreep in YGO all pushed into 1 set (YGO, the TCG known for it's powercreep is being out powercrept), with really slow and very very few bans, about 1-2 ban lists a year with only a couple cards on each list. My view on bans is probably different to the average Magic player, I've played MTG for only like 13 years (most EDH or Kitchen Table) and YGO for about 20. So it's probably an unpopular opinion to want frequent ban lists, with each list having at least half a dozen or more cards being swapped around from Banned Limited and Unlimited. I really think MTG should Limit cards more often. Also I find it fun you used a meme from a YGO card to showcase the two banning directions. Doubt it was on purpose since most people don't realize that art is from a YGO card though.

[@aliens858]

I think that "limiting"(called restricted in mtg) is a terrible idea. We have a format where we never ban and only restrict and it's called vintage.

[@MeronPurin]

The ban will be Amped Raptor and Ring only, nothing else.

[@JulioDRai]

Since Boros Energy is the most played deck in the format by a large margin and they play TOR I think it would have been more fair if you took those numbers into account when looking at TOR's play% because Phlage being the #2 most played card just shows how any card from that deck is getting a massive play% boost and there is no way Boros Energy doesnt get some key pieces banned during the next B&R and I think its safe to assume that TOR's play% would drop at least by 10% if Boros isnt tier 1 anymore. Also idk why this seems to always happen but nobody seems to take into account (or care) about the colors of the cards but a colorless spell should logically see more play than any colored spell since it can fit into any deck so idk if I buy that TOR having the highest play% is a reasonable argument for it to get banned although I do understand that playing against the same card every game can get boring so I agree it doesn't make the format more fun but since fun is subjective people could use this argument to get a lot of cards banned out of any format. The last time I remember a card getting banned in constructed for being unfun rather than too powerful was Nexus of Fate in Standard long ago and I dont think TOR is even close to the levels of boredom that NoF was but maybe I'm just crazy.

[@brandonbrooks779]

The first minute or so of this video applies to the meta after each MH release not just MH3. I would argue that the evoke elementals are/were just as bad for the format as Nadu

[@Lamepants91]

I like that you are still thinking about the modern format but I think that over banning energy would be a mistake. Personally I invested in the deck and to go and now in one banning lose 12 cards from the main deck and Jegantha is a real gut punch and personally I would lose a bunch of faith in wizards and their ability to print balanced sets. I don't think I've actually ever seen any ban hit a deck as hard as that and it would set a pretty bad precedent that they can go and ban 1/4 of your deck in one go because they only want to do bannings once a quarter. On top of that MH3 was curated to be a modern set so it would really show their failure in balancing if they needed to ban so many mh3 cards. I think just banning the one ring + jegantha is probably enough since that takes out most of the decks long game. Maybe I could see justifying one more card like prison so that it doesn't feel like boros always has 4 main deck answers to everything at no cost.